India Attends SCO Meeting in Pakistan
National coordinators meet in Islamabad as Pakistan begins its SCO chairship
New Delhi: India is taking part in a three-day meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) national coordinators that began in Islamabad on Monday, as Pakistan starts its chairship of the grouping. India is represented by its SCO national coordinator, Alok Dimri, an additional secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs. Reports said Dimri arrived in Islamabad earlier in the day.
The meeting comes two days after external affairs minister S. Jaishankar referred to Pakistan as a “terrorist country” in an exchange with a Pakistani journalist on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The SCO’s 10 members are India, Pakistan, Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Iran and Belarus.
At the SCO summit in Bishkek on September 1, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a united stand against terrorism. Without naming Pakistan, he said member countries “must send a strong message to countries that use terrorism as an instrument of policy and provide safe haven and support to terrorists that terrorism can never be a strategic asset for anyone”.
Modi also called for the dismantling of networks involved in financing, recruitment, radicalisation and providing safe havens for terrorism. He said there was “no place for double standards on terrorism”.
According to media reports citing Pakistan’s foreign office, the national coordinators will discuss the programme for Pakistan’s chairship and preparations for forthcoming SCO meetings. Pakistan has identified connectivity, innovation, economic cooperation and people-to-people contacts as priorities, the reports said.
Pakistan assumed the SCO chairship from Kyrgyzstan earlier this month and is expected to host the grouping’s summit next year. Asked recently whether Modi would attend, external affairs ministry secretary (West) Sibi George said: “A decision will be taken by the appropriate authority at the appropriate time and our appropriate level of participation will be decided accordingly.”